Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup to Watch: LoyaltyLion

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

This week, we’re interviewing Shane Mayes, Talent Acquisition Manager at LoyaltyLion – a data-driven e-commerce loyalty and engagement platform which provides loyalty programs that increase customer retention for merchants worldwide. LoyaltyLion is another cool startup on our platform that’s growing like crazy, looking to double its workforce and shake up the way that ecommerce retailers do business.

What is LoyaltyLion’s mission?

Our mission is to help retailers succeed in the age of Amazon. Ecommerce today is like the high street before it became dominated by a handful of generic, impersonal businesses. By helping entrepreneurs succeed, we hope to stop ecommerce going the way of the brick and mortar store. This is why LoyaltyLion exists.

What are your values as an employer?

We give people a setting to grow and produce their best work and be recognised for it. The attitude and mindset of your team will have a profound impact on your product and customers – we are very people focussed because of this.

Ownership and trust are at the core of our working philosophy. Everyone here has a tangible impact on our product and more broadly, the way that we work.

We act with urgency and focus but we give people the flexibility to be innovative and try new things. We’re award winning because we innovate and differentiate.

If we say it then we will do it. We make good on our promises. We can’t say much about Loyalty if we don’t make good on our own words.

You guys have grown a lot over the last year. What’s next?

Rewind to January 2019 and we were working out of a one bedroom apartment. We’ve grown to nearly 40 people since then.

We’ve added some incredibly talented and smart people to our team, and we’re building something together. What’s next? Mistakes a plenty, I’m sure! Then success, then more growth…

All of the great people that joined LoyaltyLion have done so because they believe in our platform, and our vision. More importantly they believe that we are the best place to be to achieve their own professional goals – and that’s a big responsibility for us. This year we want to continue to make good on that and invest in our people, and give them opportunities and experiences that they value.

Great culture aside, are there any company perks?

Let’s start with the things that I think our people value the most.

Flexible working, remote working and a work from home policy mean that I can stay home and work knowing that my sofa delivery won’t be missed. It means that Magda can work from Paris for part of her trip to save her using all of her holiday. It’s a great way to work and we trust our people.

Free breakfast and lunch on a Monday are really popular. We’re dog friendly and have a couple of regular four legged visitors. We have a heap of refreshments on tap and a bunch of games and entertainment and more importantly a bunch of people that you will want to play with.

We tend to wind down at 4:30 on a Friday and play some games and we have a fantastic Office Manager who looks after our social calendar – more recently we went on a scavenger hunt around London and did the crystal maze!

There’s so much more and we’re always looking for ways to enhance our offering…

What do you look for in an employee?

We like people who are self reflective and who can look inward. A lot of what we’re doing is a first experience for us, which means that things don’t always go to plan. To deal with that you need to have a growth mindset.

People who are naturally curious and value every new learning opportunity that comes their way. No one joins LoyaltyLion a loyalty expert – some of us were completely new to ecommerce. Embracing those opportunities to learn is important. Identifying valuable learning opportunities and seeking them out is what will set you apart.

Finally, we look for employees who are themselves. We have a broad range of backgrounds, experience, interests, values, goals and I’d say we’re an even split across the Hogwarts Houses (if you join us, you will definitely be sorted into a house). Come as you are, make an impact, and grow with us.

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup To Watch: Pasta Evangelists

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

This week, we’re interviewing Alessandro Savelli, MD and Founder of Pasta Evangelists: a company on a mission to become the authority in fresh pasta in the UK. Pasta Evangelists is growing quickly, hiring just as fast and radically disrupting the way we think about and consume pasta in the UK. Giles Coran and Prue Leith rank among its supporters.

Hi Alessandro, what would you say Pasta Evangelists’ mission is?

Our mission is to make the best possible fresh pasta and sauces in the UK, thereby becoming the authority in fresh pasta across multiple channels. We want to spread the joy of high-quality, fresh, hand-crafted pasta!

Can you tell us about your recent growth? What’s next for Pasta Evangelists?

The business has grown considerably over the past few years. We tripled revenues in 2019 and they grew tenfold the year before that. We’re one of the fastest growing startups in the UK and expect this to continue. In fact, we’re making sure of it by investing in our product, hiring new people and expanding our number of distribution channels.

Our three broadest priorities in 2020 are: 1) to improve our profitability, 2) to execute our concession business and 3) to improve our online business by focusing on online subscribers. With regard to the first priority, we are working hard to improve our margins and therefore, whilst top line growth remains key, it’s not our main focus in 2020. With regard to the second priority, given how pasta is purchased in the UK, we are looking to sell across a broader range of different channels this year. We have concession stands in Harrods and M&S and want to execute on these this year. There’s also a strong demand for our pasta on Ocado and Deliveroo, so we’re going to focus on growing these channels as well.

Beyond 2020, we see ourselves expanding globally. We’re currently trying to conquer the UK market, but Asia, Europe and America are also in our sights! We’re also going to stick to just making pasta: it’s in our name and it’s what we’re good at. We don’t want to diversify into other areas just yet!

What are your values as a startup employer?

We don’t have any formal ‘values’ per se but, ultimately, people are here to be treated fairly. We want to provide the people in the team with a lot of learning opportunities and we thrive when people take ownership of tasks and push for more responsibility. We’re a diverse startup team and encourage creativity, outside-of-the-box thinking and alternate perspectives as much as possible. We also reward people for hard work and dedication!

What’s great about working at Pasta Evangelists?

We give people a lot of responsibility early on, which is great for self-starters and people that want to get stuck in. We move quickly and also invest in the people in our startup team and provide a lot of learning opportunities. Working with pasta is also fun because it’s a great product. If you love food, you’ll be in heaven here!

What do you look for in an employee?

We look for people that are really interested in what we do. We hate generic applications! If you’re a massive foodie, have written about us or like our pasta – we would love to hear from you!

We’re also looking for people that have a lot of energy, work hard and are keen to learn. If you’re driven, motivated and ambitious – you’ll do well at Pasta Evangelists!

Do you have any advice for young co-founders thinking about starting their own company but currently unsure?

Move as quickly as possible. Things always take longer than anticipated so it’s good to think ahead and plan accordingly. Also, starting a business is a bit like going to war: you need allies and a good team. Don’t go to war by yourself – if you have a team, advisors, supporters, partners and co founders, your chances of success are likely to increase.

Also, do something in a category that you have a specific interest in, not just in a category where you see a business opportunity. When you found a start up, you’re tied to it for a long time and the hours are long, so it helps if you are passionate about what you do! You will also come across as more authentic and credible if you genuinely love what you do.

On a separate note, we have several open positions at the moment! So check them out and if nothing interests you but you think you could add value to Pasta Evangelists – send us an email! We’d love to hear from you.

Starting a business is not easy! In fact, it’s darn right difficult, especially if it’s your first crack at founding a startup or if you don’t have much money / support to start with. There’s a reason 90% of startups fail… but you don’t have to be part of that club. Assuming you already have […]

5 Tips For Getting Your Startup Off The Ground

Starting a business is not easy! In fact, it’s darn right difficult, especially if it’s your first crack at founding a startup or if you don’t have much money / support to start with. There’s a reason 90% of startups fail… but you don’t have to be part of that club. Assuming you already have a great idea that you’re passionate about and think has the potential to make it big, here are 5 tips for getting your startup off the ground!

Save, save, save!

I cannot stress this enough. There’s a reason the average age of a successful startup founder is 45. They not only have the experience, but also (often) the savings to help their business succeed. The first few years of founding a startup can be pretty rough: you often make little to no money, struggle to secure funding and face the hurdles of developing an MVP. If you have savings, you can bootstrap something together and rest a little easier knowing that you have something to fall back on if things don’t quite work out. Alleviating the stress of “how can I afford next month’s rent?” will be seriously helpful when you’ll be stressed enough already with the startup!

Ask your friends and family for help

Your friends and family love you and trust you, and can provide a great deal of emotional and financial support during your startup journey. In the US, the second biggest source of seed funding, after personal savings and credit, is friends and family. So don’t be afraid to ask your loved ones for investment, a loan, or if they’re feeling especially generous… a gift! This can help you get the ball rolling and develop an MVP, and give you some great pitch practice when you run your business plan past them (which you definitely should be doing!).

On the emotional support side, founding a startup is tough and you’ll face challenges on a daily basis. It’s therefore super helpful to have a strong support system that you know you can rely on when the going gets tough. It also makes small (or big!) victories that much sweeter when you have people to celebrate with.

Cultivate resilience

Founding a startup is intensely rewarding… but it can also be extremely draining. You have a lot on your plate, likely work around the clock and encounter setbacks and failures on a daily basis. Those that persevere through it all are the ones that succeed.

But how, you may ask, can I cultivate resilience? Firstly, try and be as adaptable and flexible as you can to changing situations. You can plan for the future… but ultimately a lot of it is unpredictable. Whatever comes your way, tackle it with optimism and hardwork and you’ll do just fine. Secondly, be purposeful and mindful. Resilient people have clear goals, motivations and directions. These enable you to devise effective solutions during times of crisis.

Network!!

Networking is crucial. Reach out to any entrepreneurs you know, experts in the industry, financiers, people at the same stage in their startup journey as you, and anyone else you think could be useful! Talk to as many people as possible (without becoming that annoying, needy friend of course) and soak up their advice and feedback on your startup story to date. They’ll be great to bounce ideas off, and might even introduce you to potential investors and employees… which is invaluable. While ensuring you stay respectful and polite, don’t be afraid to send people emails, message them on Linkedin and attend startup conferences. The startup scene in London is incredibly welcoming and nurturing and can help you get started. People want you to succeed!

Have a bullet-proof business plan

If you want to secure venture funding, which can often be crucial for your startup’s success, you’ll need to develop a bullet-proof business plan.

Investors want to (1) understand how you plan to operate your business and (2) determine your projected growth rates and how they stand to gain by getting involved. They can’t do either of these things if you don’t have a developed business plan.

They want to see a clear overview of your business – the nuts and bolts who you are and what your startup mission is / will be. They also want to see some rational market analysis, including detailed research on your competitors, how you are positioned within this space, and your target audience. Additionally, you should definitely outline your organisational structure, mission and values, as well as how you plan on managing your company.

Perhaps the most important part of your business plan, however, is your financials. Do your best to construct a 3 to 5 year financial model, and make sure your predictions are realistic and not overinflated. Outline, if you can, when you think you’ll be profitable and how.

On a personal level, a clearly defined business plan will give you direction and a road-map to success. It will help you navigate challenges and seize opportunities!

Get the Weekly Brief straight in your inbox: Attention anyone single (and looking to Kris Kringle) this Christmas! A new dating app, DigiD8, is on the horizon and it’s somewhat… unnerving, to say the least. Harvard academic George Church proposes to match users based on their DNA in an attempt to eliminate genetic diseases. Dystopian […]

Weekly Brief: I Was Made For Lovin’ You, Baby?

Attention anyone single (and looking to Kris Kringle) this Christmas! A new dating app, DigiD8, is on the horizon and it’s somewhat… unnerving, to say the least. Harvard academic George Church proposes to match users based on their DNA in an attempt to eliminate genetic diseases. Dystopian enough for you? What about when I tell you that the proposed app would screen out potential partners that have the ‘wrong DNA’. Freaky.

Church claims that the app (once it is created… it’s all just wishy-washy hypothesis for now) could have huge positive implications for society. It could, allegedly, prevent people with similar genetic mutations from matching, which could drastically reduce the number of people with hereditary diseases. He likens the app to genetic counselling, which many couples already undergo. While genetic counselling influences whether a couple tries for a baby, DigiD8 would stop them from meeting in the first place!

Sounds great, right? No, I’m not buying it. Dating sucks enough and now this? While the app would have advantages (who wouldn’t want to eliminate Cystic Fibrosis?) it’s a very, very slippery slope and could easily be mishandled. The idea that someone’s DNA can somehow make them incompatible with someone else, regardless of their personality and behaviour, is pretty nauseating. Surely there’s a lot more to a relationship than being DNA compatible with someone, and aren’t we being casual about something that’s tantamount to eugenics? Also, who in their right mind would give their DNA away to a dating app in the first place? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Big Tech anywhere NEAR my DNA. What do you reckon?

Get the Weekly Brief straight in your inbox: Google and NASA have just announced that they have achieved Quantum Supremacy! Hooray! But, errr… what on earth are they talking about? Simply put, this is the ability of devices to solve complex problems that classical computers can’t solve in a realistic timeframe. Google’s quantum computer solved […]

In the nearish term, quantum computing can be applied to everything from cryptography to chemistry, communication to optimisation, and tons more. Looking at cryptography as an example, we note cybersecurity depends on computers multiplying large prime numbers. Traditional computers therefore struggle to crack encryptions because this requires reversing the multiplication process and finding the original primes (which takes ages). Quantum computers can do this exponentially faster. This could help security services around the world crack codes and develop better, quasi-impenetrable quantum-secure cybersecurity systems! The flipside of this, of course, is that dissident groups could use quantum computing to hack systems globally before they’re upgraded (yikes). Meanwhile in a separate vein (pardon the pun), quantum computing could also revolutionise healthcare. It could allow us to understand the nature of all matter – which means better medicine with fewer side effects, to faster and better diagnostics. Forget a life expectancy of 81 (current UK life expectancy) – how about 110?

Get the Weekly Brief straight in your inbox: So, another big week for the WeWork saga. On Monday morning, we awoke to the news that the embattled firm had accepted a multi-billion-dollar Softbank rescue deal. The Japanese investor has bought out around 80% of the property company and injected $5bn of new financing to starve […]

How has it come to this? A few months ago they were eyeing up a $47bn valuation at IPO, and now they’re teetering on the edge of oblivion. It would be easy to write this off as the inevitable result of Neumann’s (allegedly) impulsive, greedy and occasionally pretty bizarre behaviour, but this misses a broader point. Since the launch of Softbank’s $100bn Vision Fund in 2017, VCs have “engaged in a race to the top” – raising and spending enormous amounts of money quickly, and arguably, pretty foolishly. The number of ‘hypergiant’ VC rounds ($250m +) have boomed over the past three years and ‘blitzscale’ growth, defined as “prioritising speed over efficiency in the face of uncertainty”, is arguably more fashionable than ever.

But is it a sensible growth strategy? Undoubtedly, it has proven enormously successful in a handful of instances. Amazon and Facebook are examples of companies that ‘took all’ when given unprecedented amounts of capital by investors. Huge investments enabled them to dominate markets and reap the rewards that followed. However, blitzscaling is no panacea and should not be treated as such. WeWork secured $10 billion in single-source funding from Softbank over the past three years and whilst it does have market dominance in many metropolises, losses are accelerating faster than revenue and doubt is being cast on WeWork’s scalability and defensibility. Reid Hoffman has called them out as a classic example of when blitzscaling simply wasn’t the right approach, but are these guys going to be the first in a rocky line of “failed blitz dominos” about to crash over? Let’s hope not!

Get the Weekly Brief straight in your inbox: Over the past few years, six police forces around the UK (including the MET) have been trialling facial recognition tech. It is estimated that Facewatch, the fast-track crime-reporting platform that heavily utilises facial recognition, will have 5000 cameras across the UK by 2022. The public is divided. […]

So, let’s weigh in with ours. We think that if you have nothing to hide, you have no reason to worry about Facial Recognition Tech (in the UK anyway… China is a completely different story). But if you are a wanted criminal then you should be very worried! You will not be able to evade the law (or it’ll at least be more difficult). The CEO of Facewatch notes success in this regard in Brazil, where it was used to catch the number two on Interpol’s most-wanted South America list (a drug baron), and a murderer who had been on the run for years. And, as well as identifying criminals and deterring crime, facial recognition tech could be leveraged to find missing persons, which could be transformative! If the tech is in the law’s hands then we don’t care so much about our privacy – I mean, let’s be real, we waved goodbye to privacy when we bought smartphones (which track your location, your friends, your conversations and what you buy) – we care more about being safe. Let us know on our Twitter if you disagree?